CHINA THREATENS TO KILL TIKTOK DEAL OVER ‘DIRTY’ TRUMP TACTICS Just a few days ago, the TikTok deal looked like a win for China. Now its state-run media are denouncing it as “an American trap” and a “dirty and underhanded trick.” The quick shift in sentiment shows the complications of concluding an agreement that is about much more than finding a proper valuation for an addictive video app that has enthralled teenagers around the world. It also has big ramifications for how the world’s biggest economies handle security threats related to new technologies that will drive growth over the next few decades. For China, the political stakes are similar to the marathon trade talks that ended with a phase-one deal in January. Any agreement that makes it look like the Trump administration forced China’s hand could hurt President Xi Jinping, who has repeatedly hailed the Communist Party’s emergence as a great power in contrast to the humiliations suffered under colonial powers centuries ago.